2. We should take each of us our full share in the work of our Church.
It is a poor sign of a church when all the work done is by the
minister, or by the office-bearers alone, and it is a still poorer sign
of those who belong to it. It is a sign that they have not felt the
power of that grace which ever leads the soul to put the question,
"What wilt thou have me to do?" There are none who cannot do
something. The writer read lately of a church in England, the grounds
of which were regularly tended and made beautiful by the young men
belonging to it. That may seem a small service, but it was something.
It showed a good spirit. If we are to get the most out of the Church,
we must help it to do its work--charitable, missionary, Sunday School,
Young Men's Guild. If the best heart and talent of young men were put
into these and other agencies, the power of the Church for good would
be increased immeasurably, and not the least of the advantage would
come to the workers themselves. Let each do his own part. There is
one way, we need scarcely say, in which we can all help the Church's
work: by giving to it "as the Lord hath prospered us." Under the Old
Testament dispensation every one was under strict obligation to give a
fixed proportion of his substance for religious purposes. Surely we
should not be less liberal when the proportion is left to our own sense
of duty. Freely we have received. Let us also freely give.
3. While loyal to our own Church, we should cherish towards all
Christians feelings of charity and good-will. Many of us, probably
most of us, belong to the Church to which our parents belonged; and so
long as we feel it ministers to our spiritual benefit we should keep by
it and work with it. There is little good obtained by running from
church to church, and those who sever themselves from their early
religious associations are often anything but gainers. But while we
are loyal to our own regiment in the Christian army, and proud, so far
as a Christian may be so, of its traditions and achievements, let us
ever feel that the army itself is greater than our own regiment, and
not only cherish good-will and brotherly love towards those who fight
in that army, but be ready at all times to co-operate with them, and to
fight with them against the common enemy. It is well to be a good
churchman, it is infinitely better to be a good Christian. It is best
when one is both; for indeed he is the best Christian who is the best
churchman, and he is the best churchman who is the best Christian.
[1] The subject of "The Church, Ministry and Sacraments" is to be fully
dealt with in a Guild text-book by the Rev. Norman Macleod, D. D. We
only refer in this chapter to those phases of Church life that are more
immediately connected with Life and Conduct.
[2] _Confession of Faith_.
CHAPTER XVI.
CITIZENSHIP.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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